New visa scandal

Romanians queue outside the British embassy in Bucharest to get visas.

A new immigration scandal erupted today over Romanians getting visas to be child protection social workers in the UK even though they have no training.

Documents passed to the Evening Standard show the Government was warned 19 months ago that Romanians with no suitable qualifications were being waved through. Some were not fluent in English.

Extraordinarily, the migrants had been trained to be probation officers in their own country by a £2.6 million aid project funded by the British taxpayer.

This meant that while one arm of the Government was training them to tackle law and order in the former Communist state, another was using public money to recruit them as would-be social workers.

The new charge goes to the heart of the furore over the fast-tracking of migrants from eastern Europe, which led to the downfall of immigration minister Beverley Hughes.

It came as Tony Blair convened an emergency summit of ministers and security advisers in Downing Street. A poll showed Labour support down to 34 per cent - the lowest level since the 2001 election - in the wake of the controversy.